Spread sheet application having multidimensional cells

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method for modifying the content of one or a plurality of cells of a spread sheet or a report which is associated with a spread sheet having a number of cells which are displayed in rows and columns, comprising: detecting a user request to modify the content of one or a plurality of cells, when a user request has been recognized, retrieving and processing a predetermined entry from a storage medium, wherein the storage medium includes a number of different entries, which are processed consecutively, wherein, each time a user request has been recognized, a predetermined next entry is processed.

BACKGROUND

Spread sheet software applications are generally used by many differentusers for storing, manipulating or displaying data. A typical spreadsheet usually comprises a limited number of cells which are arranged inrows and columns. Each of the cells may contain specific data, such asvalues, functions, formulas, strings or other data.

Many well-known spread sheet application programs, such as Microsoft®Excel®, allow making user defined reports or so-called pivot-tables fromthe actual spread sheet data. For creating a report or pivot-table,respectively, any desired data of the spread sheet may be selected anddisplayed in a separate table. The data included in a report orpivot-table is usually also presented within individual cells which arearranged in rows and columns. Therefore, such a report or pivot-table isalso referred to as a “spread sheet” within this application.

Data which is included in a single column of a spread sheet usuallyrefers to one type of information, such as “task”, “cost”, “amount” or“effort”. If another category of information is to be added to a givenspread sheet, an additional column has to created and arranged at acertain position of the spread sheet. As the number of lines and rows ofa spread sheet grows with the complexity of a project, the correspondingspread sheet quickly becomes very large and confusing. For instance, ifthe cost of different tasks within a project is to be displayed indifferent currencies, such as USD, EUR or JPY, a separate column foreach currency has to be provided in the spread sheet. Thereby, thedimensions of a spreadsheet may grow excessively which makes itdifficult to locate and extract any desired information.

SUMMARY

The summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the detaileddescription. The summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject-matter nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimedsubject-matter.

According to the invention, a method for modifying the content of one ora plurality of cells of a spread sheet or of any kind of report, havinga number of cells which are displayed in rows and columns, comprises:

-   -   detecting a user request to modify the content of one or a        plurality of cells;    -   when such a user request has been recognized, retrieving and        processing a predetermined entry from a storage medium, wherein        the storage medium includes a number of different entries, which        are processed consecutively; and    -   each time the user request is repeated, retrieving a        predetermined next entry from the storage medium and modifying        the content of one or a plurality of cells according to the        retrieved entry from the storage medium.

Preferably, the content of one or more cells may be modified bymanipulating a cell or a control field, which is assigned to the cell orcells, respectively, in a predetermined manner. According to oneembodiment of the invention, appropriate control fields are provided,e.g. one or more control buttons, which may be operated by the user inorder to change the content of one or more cells at the same time. Also,at least some, preferably all of the cells of a spreadsheet may besensitive to a given user operation, such as clicking or dragging. Auser request to modify the content of one or more cells is preferablyrecognized when a control field or an individual cell is manipulated ina predetermined manner.

When a cell or a control field is manipulated repeatedly, thecorresponding entries of the storage medium are successively processedin a given order. Thereby, the content of one or a plurality of cellsmay be changed in a predetermined manner without recourse to pull-downmenus or any other kind of menus, just by repeating a certain userrequest, like repeatedly clicking on a cell or a given control field.Thus, the content of one or a plurality of cells may be changed veryeasily.

Principally, a user request may refer to a modification of data or dataformat or to a change of the position of a cell. If the user requestrefers to a modification of data, the data of one or more cells aremodified according to the associated commands, which are stored in thestorage medium. For example, the currency of an amount which isdisplayed in one or more cells may be changed from USD to EUR to JPY byrepeatedly manipulating the same control field which is associated withthe cell or cells, respectively. If the user request refers to amodification of data format, the data format of one or more cells isamended according to the associated data entries, which are retrievedfrom the storage medium. For example, the letter type of the content ofone or more cells may be changed from “bold” to “italics” to“underlined” by repeatedly manipulating the same control field which isassociated with the cell or cells, respectively. Thereby the dataentries of the associated cells change accordingly. Finally, if the userrequest refers to a change of position of a cell or a number of cells,the cells are moved accordingly. As an example, a given cell may bemoved downward by manipulating a control function in a predeterminedmanner, wherein the space where the cell has been originally located,receives a predetermined value such as NUL for instance.

The modification which is performed by means of a user request ispreferably determined by the type of information that is contained in acell, or by the cell or data format of the manipulated cell, or by thetype of control field which is manipulated. If, for instance, the dataentry of a cell belongs to the category “cost” which is displayed in USDollars at the moment, the amount may be changed to Euro, Japanese Yenor Chinese Yuan, by repeatedly clicking on the cell or by repeatedlyperforming any other kind of predetermined user request, such asrepeatedly manipulating an associated control field. In another example,the data format, such as “colour”, of one or a plurality of cells may bechanged consecutively in a given order, e.g. from black to blue to redand to yellow by repeatedly clicking on the cell or by repeatedlyperforming any other kind of predetermined user request, such asrepeatedly manipulating an associated control field. In other words, apredetermined modification of one or more cells may be carried out bymeans of repeated manipulation of a cell or an associated control field.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the number ofentries which are processed by repeatedly manipulating a cell or acontrol field is preferably limited to a number smaller than ten, inparticular to about four. However, the number of entries, which areprocessed consecutively, is preferably more than two. The entries of thestorage medium are preferably looped through, i.e. after a last entryhas been processed, the first entry is retrieved from the storage mediumand processed.

In order to modify the content of one or more cells, the user may click,double-click, drag or perform any other predetermined action within thearea of a cell or a control field—with or without pressing an additionalkey—by means of any well-known input device, such as a computer mouse.The user may click on a certain area within a cell, thereby causing thecontent of the cell to change. Likewise, a vertex of a cell may bedragged to initiate a modification of the cell content.

The term “storage medium”, as it is used in the description and theclaims, refers to any well known technology for storing information suchas hard discs, RAM, ROM, EPROM, in particular.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the entries of thestorage medium, which are consecutively processed, when a cell orcontrol field is repeatedly manipulated, may be defined by the user. Forexample, a list of various commands may be presented to the user fromwhich the user may select the ones he desires. When a number of commandshas been selected, the selected commands are consecutively processedwhen a cell or a control field is manipulated. Thereby, the cell orcells are modified correspondingly.

Once a user request has been recognized, the cells which are affected bythe user request are preferably displayed in form of 3D-objects and areturned upon every request so as to show another facet of the 3D-objectcomprising a modified content. After that, the cells of the spread sheetmay be displayed in a standard 2D-mode again. According to anotherdisplay mode, the cells of the spread sheet or the control fields aregenerally displayed in 3D mode and turned upon a user request.

A control field according to the invention may be assigned to anindividual or a plurality of cells. A more sophisticated embodiment ofthe spread sheet application program provides control fields which areassigned to an entire row or column of the spread sheet. In this case,the manipulation of a control field causes the content of several or allcells of the associated row/column to be modified in a predeterminedmanner. The type of the control field may define the type ofmodification, which is carried out when the control field ismanipulated. The type of the control field is preferably indicated inthe control field, for instance as a text or a symbol.

When a control field is assigned to a plurality of cells, such as anentire column, preferably only those cells are affected by manipulationof the control field which have not been “locked” before. According to aspecial embodiment of the present invention, one or more individualcells may be exempt from manipulation by a control field, for instanceby means of clicking on the cell in a certain area, by selecting acorresponding command from a menu, by individually setting a cell toanother value or by any other appropriate action.

A control field according to the invention may be displayed in the formof a 3D-object such as a 3D-cube. The control field may turn on everymanipulation.

The type of modifications that are carried out when a control field isrepeatedly manipulated may be preset by the user.

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, a control fieldlibrary is provided from which one or more control fields may beselected by the user. Preferably, the control fields may be dragged fromthe library and placed adjacent to a desired row or column via drag anddrop. Thereby the control field is assigned to a certain row or column.

Additionally, one or more cells may be displayed in a standard mode oran extended mode, in which additional information, which may refer tothe data which is displayed in standard mode, is shown. The display modemay be changed by performing a predetermined action within the area of acell or a control field such as clicking on a special button ordouble-clicking for instance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary computing architecture for a computer;

FIG. 2 illustrates an overview of a spread sheet system;

FIG. 3 illustrates a spread sheet which is displayed in a 3D-mode;

FIG. 4 illustrates a selection of different commands from a list ofcommands of the category “colour”;

FIG. 5 illustrates a selection of certain commands from a list ofcommands of the category “cost”;

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary spread sheet including a number ofcontrol fields which are associated to the individual columns of thespread sheet;

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary spread sheet in an extended mode; and

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary information which may be displayed inextended mode.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

In a detailed description referring now to the drawings, various aspectsof the invention will be described by way of example. In particular,FIG. 1 and the corresponding description are intended to provide abrief, general description of a suitable computing environment in whichembodiments of the present invention may be implemented.

For the purpose of the present invention, any suitable type of computersystem may be used including hand-held devices, desktop computers,laptops and the like. Distributed computing environments may also beused where tasks are preformed by remote processing devices that arelinked through a communication network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotestorage devices.

In FIG. 1, an exemplary computer architecture for a computer 1 utilizedin various embodiments is shown. The computer architecture of FIG. 1 maybe configured in many different ways such as a server, a personalcomputer, a hand-held computer and the like. The computer 1 includes acentral processing unit 2 (CPU), a system memory 3, including a randomaccess memory 4 (RAM) and a read-only memory 5 (ROM) and a system bus 6that couples the memory to the CPU 2. Some basic routines for dataprocessing and for input/output-management may be stored in the ROM 5.The computer 1 further includes a hard disc 7, on which an operatingsystem 9 and other application programs such as a spread sheetapplication program 8 may be stored.

The hard disc 7 is connected to the CPU 2 via the bus 6. Although thedescription of the mass storage device 7 refers to a hard disc, thestorage device may be any other available storage medium that can beaccessed by the computer 1.

In the illustrated embodiment, the computer 1 is connected to a network13, such as the internet or a LAN, via a network interface 11. Thecomputer 1 may also include an input/output controller 12 for receivingand processing input from a number of well-known devices, such as:keyboard, mouse, electronic pen and the like. Similarly, theinput/output controller 12 may provide output to a display screen, aprinter or some other type of device.

The storage device or a hard disc 7, respectively, and the RAM 4 maystore a spread sheet application program 8 such as Microsoft Excel®. Anexemplary spread sheet document is referenced by reference number 10.

FIG. 2 illustrates an overview of a computer system comprising a clientcomputer 1 which is connected to the network 13, such as the internet.On the computer 1, a spread sheet application program is run whichdisplays a spread sheet on the computer screen. An enlarged view of thedisplay is shown on the right hand side of the computer 1. In theillustrated example, a typical spread sheet, having a number of cells 14which are arranged in rows 15 and columns 16, is shown. The user canenter any kind of data, like values, functions, strings or formulas, viaa user interface, such as a keyboard. The user may further edit orprocess the data as desired. CPU 2 performs operations relating to thecells 14 within the spread sheet 10. A spread sheet 10 may be anyregular spread sheet or any selection of data associated with a spreadsheet or a data base, such as a so-called pivot-table or spread sheetreport, respectively. In the present description and claims, any kind ofsheet having a number of cells which are displayed in rows and columns,is referred to as a “spread sheet”.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary spread sheet having several rows 15 andcolumns 16. Other than in conventional spread sheet applications, thecontent of one or more cells may be modified by performing apredetermined action within the area of a cell. For instance, the usermay click or double-click on a selected cell 14—anywhere within the areaof the cell 14 or on a certain spot 19 which may be indicated by someicon in order to modify the content of the cell 14. Likewise, the usermay perform a predetermined dragging movement, like dragging a vertex ofa cell 14 or any other predetermined action in order to modify thecontent of the cell 14.

In conventional spread sheet application programs, the content of a cellmay be modified by physically entering new data into the cell or byusing control buttons which are usually displayed in a menu bar which islocated externally from the spread sheet. Manipulation of the controlbutton in a well-known spread sheet application generally allowsactivating or deactivating a given function, such as amending thecharacter format from “bold” to “standard” or from “italic” to“standard”. Each time, such a control button is pressed, thecorresponding function is carried out or reset to a standard setting. Bymanipulating another type of button, a certain command is executedrepeatedly, like for instance the calculation of a sum or themultiplication with a given factor.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a number of differentfunctions—on/off-commands are not regarded as different functions withinthis description and the claims—may be successively executed byrepeatedly performing the same, predetermined action, e.g. clicking on acell 14 or on a control field 19 several times. Each time a user requesthas been recognized, a predetermined next entry is retrieved from astorage medium and processed. In the storage medium a number ofdifferent entries are stored, preferably more than two, which areconsecutively processed in a given order. The entries may be any kind ofcommands or functions, respectively, by means of which the type ofinformation within a cell or its format may be modified. The commands,which are executed consecutively when a cell or a control field ismanipulated several times, preferably belong to the same data categoryas the manipulated cell or the control field. This will be explainedlater with reference to FIG. 6.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the spread sheet is generally depicted as a2D-table in standard mode. When a user request to modify the content ofone or more cells has been recognized, the cell or cells are visualizedas 3D-objects, such as a 3D-cube 17, the size of which may be increasedin relation to 2D mode. Then, the 3D-object 17 may be rotated around ahorizontal axis for instance, such as to show another facet of the3D-object 17 comprising another type of data or having another format.In the illustrated example, the 3D-object 17 is turned by 90° about ahorizontal axis, so that the next facet 19 is directed to the user. Theformerly shown facet 18 is rotated downwards and becomes non-visible.After this visualization of the modification, the graphicalrepresentation of the cell is set back to 2D-mode.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 3, the 3D-cube 17 has got fourfacets which may be displayed to the user by rotating the 3D-cube 17with respect to a horizontal or a vertical axis. Therefore, the set ofentries that are consecutively processed in a given order, each time auser request has been recognized, preferably comprises a number of fourentries. However, a set of entries may also include more or fewer thanfour entries, but preferably more than two. The entries are preferablyprocessed in a loop.

FIG. 4 illustrates the user specific selection of different commandswhich are consecutively processed each time a cell 14 or control field19 is manipulated. In the present example, a list of different characterformats is presented to the user in form of a table 17. In theillustrated embodiment, the user may select from a number of differentcolours like “red”, “blue”, “green”, “black”, “yellow”, “orange”, etc.and drag the desired options to a table 18 which represents the set ofcommands which are executed consecutively when a predetermined useraction is performed repeatedly. In the present example, the table 18comprises four entries which are processed within a loop A. I.e., afterthe last entry has been processed, the first entry is retrieved from thestorage medium and processed. In the present example, the colour of thecharacters would change from blue to green to yellow and orange and backto blue, when a cell 14 or a control field is repeatedly manipulated ina predetermined manner.

FIG. 5 illustrates another example of user specific selection ofdifferent commands, which are consecutively processed when a certainuser input is repeated several times. In the present example, the usermay select from a list 17 of different data sub-categories within agiven data category. In the present case, the user may select fromdifferent cost categories within the topic “costs”, such as “hotelcosts”, “flight costs”, “train costs”, “car costs”, “national costs” or“foreign costs”. As explained before in relation to FIG. 2, the desiredoptions may be dragged into a table 18 which represents those entries ofa memory which are processed when a cell or control field 19 ismanipulated repeatedly. In the present example, the user has selected“hotel costs”, “train costs”, “car costs” and “total national costs” tobe displayed successively each time the cell 14 and/or control field 19is manipulated.

FIG. 6 illustrates a more sophisticated embodiment of a spread sheet ora pivot-table providing a number of control fields 19. Each of thecontrol fields 19 is assigned to a certain column 16 of the spread sheet10, due to its particular location. In the illustrated embodiment, thecontrol fields 19 are arranged above the associated column 16 of thespread sheet 10. Likewise, the control field 19 may also be arrangedbelow a desired column 16 or may be part of the spread sheet (orpivot-table). Alternatively, control fields 19 may also be assigned toindividual rows 15 of the spread sheet.

In the present example, one or more control fields 19 may be selectedfrom a control field library 22 as desired. The selected control fielde.g. may be dragged to a position close to a desired column 16, wherebythe control field is associated with the respective column 16, asindicated by arrows B.

According to the invention, a control field may define the type ofinformation which is displayed in the cells 14 of an associated row 15or column 16, respectively. Another type of control field 19 may definethe character format or cell format of the associated row 15 or column16. By selecting a number of control fields 19 which define the datacategory which is displayed in the cells of an associated row 15 orcolumn 16, a user may easily create a particular spread sheet. In theexample of FIG. 6, the first column 16 displays the different tasks of aproject, the second column 16 displays the people who are involved inworking on the various tasks, the third column 16 shows time accounts ofthe people listed in the second column 16, and the fourth column 16shows an amount of cost. Moreover, the size of the spread sheet 10 mayof course be increased or decreased.

The format of the individual data entries within the cells 14 may bedefined by means of the above-mentioned second type of control fields.In the example of FIG. 6, the font size is defined by a control field“size” 19 of the first column 16, and the font colour of the secondcolumn 16 is defined by a control field “colour” 19. The function andeffect of the control fields 19 are explained in detail, hereafter.

In general, the type of information which is displayed in the cells of arow of column 16, as well as its data format, is defined by one or moreassociated control fields 19. In order to effect a modification of thecell content of an entire row 15 or column 16, an associated controlfield 19 has to be manipulated repeatedly in a predetermined manner asdescribed with reference to FIG. 4 or 5. If, for instance, the controlfield “size”, which is associated with the first column 16, is clickedrepeatedly, the font size of the data included in this column 16 may bechanged from 8 to 10 to 12 and 14. Likewise, if the control field “task”is clicked repeatedly, the task category may be amended. It is notedthat individual cells within a column may be excluded from beingchanged. The latter may be achieved by completing any appropriatecommand, such as clicking on a certain field or selecting such a commandfrom a menu. Also, a cell 14 is locked, if the cell has been manipulatedindividually, so as to show a different type of information or formatthan the other cells in the same column.

With regard to the second column 16 (from the left hand side), the fontcolour may be changed by clicking on the control field “colour”.Likewise, the time format or the currency format may be changed byclicking on the corresponding control fields “time” or “$”. Manipulationof the time control field will for example display the time in minutes,days or any other format. Clicking on the $ control field 19 will changethe currency from USD to EUR to JPY and to YEN for example. By clickingon the cost control field, the cost category may be changed from travelcosts to service costs to expenses or any other desired “cost” category.The associated data may be retrieved from a source spread sheet oranother data base. The modifications, which are carried out when acontrol field 19 in manipulated, may be user defined or preset.

Besides the change of the data entries of an entire row 15 or column 16,the data entry of individual cells 14 may also be affected within thescope of the invention. For this purpose, an individual cell 14 or aselected group of cells 14 have to be manipulated in a predeterminedmanner, for example by clicking, double clicking or dragging, etc.Thereby, the type of a control field 19, which is placed in a so-calledmaster area 20, determines the commands executed or the changes applied,respectively. Regarding the first column 16, manipulating an individualcell 14 of the first column will change the font size, for the mastercontrol field belongs to the category “font size”. Likewise, regardingthe second column 16, manipulating a cell of the second column 16 willchange the font colour of that cell, regarding the third column 16,manipulating a cell 14 of the third column 16 will change the timeformat, and when a cell 14 of the fourth column 16 is manipulated, thecurrency format will change. However, the “task” category, the “person”category or the “cost” category are not changed according to theprevious scheme. In order to change these categories, the control field19 presently in use and thus residing in the master field 20 needs to bereplaced by the new control field 19, as indicated by an arrow C

In another embodiment having no master area 20, a particular controlfield may act as a master field, which determines the changes that arecarried out, when an individual cell 14 of an associated row 15 orcolumn 16 is manipulated. Such a master control field may be markedaccordingly.

Besides the control fields 19 mentioned above, another type of controlfield may be implemented, which executes a predetermined function, suchas a sorting function or a mathematical function. In the example of FIG.6, the control field 19 “sort” is applied to the first column 16.Consequently, the first column is sorted by task. In order to sort thespread sheet by another data category, such as “person”, the controlfield 19 “sort” may be moved to the second column 16, or the controlfields 19 “task” and “person” may be interchanged, as indicated by anarrow D.

In order to add a column to a given spreadsheet, the column may becreated by simply dragging a control field of any data type to a desiredlocation, either in between two existing columns or to a boundary of thespreadsheet. The new column will then appear at the chosen location.

FIG. 7 illustrates an additional feature of the spread sheet applicationprogram according to the invention. Said feature allows the display ofindividual cells in an extended mode in which additional informationreferring to the data, which is displayed in standard mode, is shown. Inthe illustration of FIG. 7, a cell 14 of the third column 16 has beenmanipulated in a predetermined manner, e.g. double-clicked so that thearea of this cell 14 is expanded. The expanded area 21 of the cell 14may show the originally displayed information augmented by supplementaryinformation or it may show information different from the originallydisplayed information.

FIG. 8 exemplarily shows an expanded cell 21 containing additionalinformation about the time account of a specific person. As shown inFIG. 8, the user gets more information on how much time was spent on agiven day. The type of additional information, which is displayed inextended mode, may be defined by the user or may be preset.

The invention claimed is:
 1. Method for modifying the content of one ora plurality of cells of a spread sheet or a report which is associatedwith a spread sheet having a number of cells which are displayed in rowsand columns, comprising: assigning several control fields to a singlerow or a single column of the spread sheet, wherein each of the controlfields allows a user to subsequently execute a number of differentcommands each time when one of the control fields is manipulated by theuser, and wherein a first type of the control fields serves to changethe data category of the associated cells, and a second type of thecontrol fields serves to change the data format of the associated cellsor to execute a number of different mathematical functions in relationto the associated cells; detecting, if one of the control fields ismanipulated in a predetermined manner by a user in order to modify thecontent of a plurality of cells of the associated row or column; whensuch a user request has been recognized, retrieving and processing apredetermined entry from a storage medium, depending on the type of thecontrol field, wherein the storage medium includes a number of differententries, which are processed consecutively each time the user request isrepeated; and modifying the content of a plurality of cells accordingly.2. The method of claim 1, wherein a user request may refer to amodification of data or data format, or to a change of the position of acell, and, if the user request refers to a modification of data, thedata of one or a plurality of cells is modified according to theretrieved entry, if the user request refers to a modification of thedata format, the data format of one or a plurality of cells is modifiedaccording to the retrieved entry, and if the user request refers to achange of position, the position of one or a plurality of cells ischanged.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the entries of the storagemedium are consecutively retrieved from the storage medium in a givenorder, when the control field is repeatedly manipulated in apredetermined manner.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the entries ofthe storage medium, which are associated with a control field, areprocessed within a loop, wherein after retrieving a last entry of thestorage medium, the first entry is retrieved from the storage medium. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein a user request is recognized, when a userperforms a predetermined action within the area of a control field whichis associated with one or a plurality of cells.
 6. The method of claim3, wherein the entries of the storage medium, which are consecutivelyprocessed in a given order, belong to the same data category or the sameformat category as the manipulated cell or control field.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the entries of the storage medium which areconsecutively processed in a given order, may be defined by the user bymeans of a menu.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein on recognition of auser request, the cell or cells, which are affected by the user request,are displayed in form of a 3D-object, which is turned so as to showanother facet of the 3D-object containing modified data.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the control field determines the type of informationwhich is displayed in the cells of the associated row or column, or theformat of one or more of the cells.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinone of the control fields determines the modifications of data which arecarried out when a single cell is manipulated in a predetermined manner.11. The method of claim 1, wherein after recognition of a user requestby which a control field is manipulated, the manipulated control fieldis displayed in form of a 3D-object which is turned so as to showanother facet of the 3D-object.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein oneor more control fields may be selected by the user from a control fieldlibrary.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein one or more control fieldsmay be dragged from the library and placed adjacent to a desired row orcolumn via drag and drop.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein a displaymode may be changed between standard mode and extended mode byperforming a predetermined action within the area of a cell or a controlfield.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the area of a cell will beexpanded in the extended mode.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein thecell content is shown on the same facet of a 3D-object in standard andin extended mode.
 17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumfor modifying the content of one or a plurality of cells of a spreadsheet having a number of cells which are displayed in rows and columns,the storage medium comprising a computer-readable code which executesthe steps of: assigning several control fields to a single row or asingle column of the spread sheet, wherein each of the control fieldsallows a user to subsequently execute a number of different commandseach time when one of the control fields is manipulated by the user, andwherein a first type of the control fields serves to change the datacategory of the associated cells, and a second type of the controlfields serves to change the data format of the associated cells or toexecute a number of different mathematical functions in relation to theassociated cells; detecting, if one of the control fields is manipulatedin a predetermined manner by a user in order to modify the content of aplurality of cells; a user request to modify the content of one or aplurality of cells; when such a user request has been recognized,retrieving and processing a predetermined entry from a storage medium,depending on the type of the control field; wherein the storage mediumincludes a number of different entries, which are processedconsecutively each time the user request is repeated; and modifying thecontent of a plurality of cells accordingly.
 18. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 17, wherein a user request may refer to amodification of data or data format, or to a change of the position of acell, and, if the user request refers to a modification of data, thedata of one or a plurality of cells is modified according to theretrieved entry, if the user request refers to a modification of thedata format, the data format of one or a plurality of cells is modifiedaccording to the retrieved entry, and if the user request refers to achange of position, the position of one or a plurality of cells ischanged.
 19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, whereinthe entries of the storage medium are consecutively processed in a givenorder, when a control field is repeatedly manipulated in a predeterminedmanner.
 20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, whereinthe entries of the storage medium, which are associated with a cell or acontrol field, are processed within a loop, wherein after processing alast entry of the storage medium, the first entry is processed.
 21. Thecomputer-readable storage medium according to claim 1, wherein a userrequest is recognized, when a user performs a predetermined actionwithin the area of a cell or within the area of a control field which isassociated with one or a plurality of cells.
 22. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 21, wherein the entries of the storage medium,which are consecutively retrieved from the storage medium in a givenorder, belong to the same data category or the same format category asthe manipulated cell or control field.
 23. A system for modifying thecontent of one or a plurality of cells of a spread sheet or a reporthaving a number of cells which are displayed in rows and columns,comprising: a processor having at least one computer hardware componentand a computer-readable storage medium; and a spread sheet applicationconfigured to perform actions using the processor, the actionscomprising: assigning a first and at least one further control field toa single row or a single column of the spread sheet, wherein each of thecontrol fields allows a user to subsequently execute a number ofdifferent commands each time when one of the control fields ismanipulated by the user, and wherein a first type of the control fieldsserves to change the data category of the associated cells, and a secondtype of the control fields serves to change the data format of theassociated cells or to execute a number of different mathematicalfunctions in relation to the associated cells; detecting, if one of thecontrol fields is manipulated in a predetermined manner by a user inorder to modify the content of a plurality of cells; when such a userrequest has been recognized, retrieving a predetermined entry from astorage medium, depending on the type of the control field; wherein thestorage medium includes a number of different entries, which areprocessed consecutively each time a user request has been recognized;and modifying a plurality of cells according to the retrieved entry.